McKINNEY, Texas (AP) — The judge who presided over Texas teenager Karmelo Anthony's murder conviction was removed from the case Wednesday ahead of a key hearing to decide whether to grant a new trial in the fatal stabbing of a 17-year-old athlete at a high school track meet.
The removal was a legal victory for Anthony, now 19, whose attorneys wanted the judge off the case following the June trial, in part because of a TV interview in which the judge said
jurors “got it right” when they delivered a guilty verdict in the killing of Austin Metcalf.
Anthony, who was sentenced to 35 years in prison, wore a green prison jumpsuit in a suburban Dallas courtroom when a visiting judge ordered state District Judge John Roach's recusal. Judge Michael Chitty was later assigned to the case.
Outside the courtroom in McKinney, cheers erupted in the hallway while some Anthony supporters chanted “Free Karmelo!” in the parking lot.
“Today’s ruling answers a fundamental question: whether a reasonable fully informed observer would see Judge Roach’s conduct and believe that he could fairly and impartially consider a motion for new trial,” Anthony’s lawyers said in a statement.
On Thursday, Anthony was expected back in court for a hearing that will determine whether a retrial is warranted.
Jurors this summer had rejected Anthony's claims of self-defense during a confrontation with Metcalf in the stadium bleachers last year. Anthony did not testify during the trial. Other students who took the stand described a heated exchange over Anthony’s refusal on a rainy spring day to leave a tent that belonged to Metcalf’s team.
The case attracted national attention in part because of a flood of social media posts that amplified the killing in racial terms. Anthony is Black; Metcalf was white. Lawyers on both sides, however, told jurors the tragedy had nothing to do with race.
Anthony’s legal team has argued that a retrial is needed, in part, because Roach enforced strict courtroom rules that they said limited the public's access to the proceedings. They also zeroed in on comments Roach made to a Dallas TV station after the trial ended.
In the interview, which was played as Wednesday's hearing began, Roach was asked if the jury got “it right.”
“Yeah, they did,” Roach said, adding: “Whatever they say, they got it right.”
During the interview, Roach also defended his courtroom rules and spoke about the onslaught of online postings about the case.
Visiting Judge Sid Harle said he did not know Roach and he believed Roach would be fair in a hearing for a retrial, but was granting the defense's request for a recusal because of how it might look to others. In his written order, Harle said the evidence was such that the judge's “impartiality might reasonably be questioned” and ordered another judge to “preside over all further proceedings.”
Roach did not immediately respond to a request for comment following the ruling.
Prosecutor Bill Wirskye had urged the court to keep Roach. He said the judge “didn’t do anything wrong” and that his courtroom rules were meant to protect the integrity of the trial, which brought demonstrators outside the courthouse. Wirskye did not immediately respond to a request for comment following the ruling.
As national attention on the killing intensified last year, the families of both Metcalf and Anthony said they had been targets of harassment.
“We were all getting death threats,” Wirskye said.
Several schools were competing when Anthony sat under the Memorial High School tent that was perched in the bleachers. Metcalf and others had repeatedly told Anthony to leave, witnesses testified, leading to an escalating confrontation.
Prosecutors said Anthony provoked Metcalf, and witnesses testified that Anthony was the aggressor.
Anthony at one point reached inside a bag and replied: “Touch me and see what happens,” according to a police report.
Metcalf pushed Anthony, according to witnesses, who said Anthony then pulled out a knife and stabbed him in the chest.
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Associated Press writer Jim Vertuno contributed to this report from Austin.
